How Does Hinge Work? Experts Explain the Dating App
Launched way back in 2013, Hinge set out to be a competitor to Tinder. To differentiate itself from the likes of Tinder and other up-and-coming dating apps, Hinge focused on long-term relationships rather than hook-ups — hence its tagline 'Designed to be deleted.' The idea with Hinge, in theory, is that it's there to help you find your forever partner rather than an endless parade of matches and dead-end dates.
Of course, like any dating app, the reality is that what you'll find on Hinge depends largely on your own individual preferences as well as those of the people you're matching with. While you may be more likely to find people seeking serious relationships on Hinge than some other apps, there are still plenty of people on the app looking for more casual connections and various other dynamics. And thanks to the large user base on the app, there's a good chance that whatever it is you're looking for in your dating life, you can find like-minded daters on Hinge. So here's everything to know about how to use the app effectively and make it work for you.
It's pretty straightforward to get started on Hinge, or any dating site for that matter. First, you need to download the app (duh), and then sign up using either your phone number, an email or your Facebook account.
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From there, you'll be prompted to add some photos to your profile (experts say three to five photos is the perfect number), fill in some personal information about yourself and what you're looking for, and pick a range of prompts to add a bit more personality to your profile. Hinge was actually one of the first apps to use prompts as helpful conversation starters and they've since become a quintessential part of the dating experience (if you're struggling to think of the best quirky responses to Hinge prompts, we have a few suggestions here).
The app is now also willing to provide help with your perfect answers. In January 2025, Hinge released Prompt Feedback, a new feature designed to help daters better express their unique personalities, interests, and dating intentions on their profiles.
The feedback, which is powered by AI and guided by insights from Hinge's team of PhD behavioral scientists, evaluates a daters' prompt answers and generates feedback. The feature doesn't tell the dater exactly what to say, or provide suggested language. Instead, Prompt Feedback provides optional guidance and tips that help daters stand out in a way that feels authentic and engaging and spark conversations that lead to dates.
Bima Loxley, a sex and relationship therapist, says the best way to build a dating profile is to be totally honest. '[Be honest with] your picture, your wants, your needs, your gender and sexuality, your kinks, even. No one likes surprises and it's better to be honest so you get the right matches, instead of wasting your and their time,' they say.
Once your profile is filled out, it's time to start matching! If you have the basic (free) Hinge subscription, Hinge will show you a range of profiles one after the other which you can either decline to match with by hitting the X in the bottom left corner, or you can try to match with by liking a picture or prompt by tapping the heart next to it.
Hinge will show you who has liked your pictures and prompts in the heart tab—located at the bottom of the app in the middle of your screen. But to secure the match, you have to complete the next step and hit the button with the speech bubble to start a conversation. If you've changed your mind about the person you've liked and who liked you back, you can just hit the X and keep on moving.
Once you've matched, it's time to get chatting… Your matches will show up in the messages tab, and unlike apps such as Bumble where women make the first move, anyone can message first.
For a first message, Bima suggests referring to something your match has mentioned in their profile to show you're interested in them. If they say they love hiking, try asking them what their favorite hike is.
And of course, you need to actually chat to your matches. In 2024, Hinge launched Your Turn Limits, a first-of-its-kind feature addressing one of the biggest challenges of securing a date: unanswered messages from matches. The feature is designed to increase daters' focus on quality over quantity of matches by limiting unanswered messages. With Your Turn Limits, daters with too many people waiting on their response will need to reply or end the conversation with their matches before they can make new connections.
Hinge sorts your recommendations into categories including 'compatible' which anyone can access, and 'nearby,' 'active today,' and 'new here,' which you can only see if you have a paid subscription. Obviously, paying for the service gets you access to a few more features like this, but the jury is still out on whether you're more likely to find love if you pay a fee.
The app also suggests 'stand outs'—a list of the people it thinks you'll be most compatible with based on your previous swiping habits. Hinge gives you the option to send a 'rose' to these people to get their attention. You can send one rose a day for free, but to send more roses you'll have to buy a pack—starting at $3.99. It's because of this 'stand outs' tab that so many theories about Hinge's algorithm 'gatekeeping hot people' have popped up.
Hinge uses an algorithm to match users it thinks will be most compatible. Similarly to other dating apps, Hinge doesn't share information about how its algorithms work. (We reached out to them to ask for some insight but they declined to comment.) Do dating apps like this one hide their most eligible users behind a paywall? Guess we'll never know.
Because of this lack of transparency, there are lots of conspiracy theories out there about how the algorithm might be sorting and matching people and how to 'hack' your app to get better matches. One theory suggests that Hinge shows you the people you're most likely to be compatible with after you've run out of free likes for the day to encourage you to sign up for a paid plan, another suggests that the app shows you profiles with fewer likes first.
But the truth is, none of these hacks are tested or based on data—they are just theories. If you're not being liked back by people you find attractive, sure, it could be a conspiracy, or (and hear us out) it could just be that an algorithm is never going to magically know who you might have a spark with and that dating apps aren't a perfect solution for love.
Hinge also prides itself on constantly striving to create a better dating experience for everyone. Hence the creation of Hinge Labs, which seeks to 'bridge relationship, emotion, and behavioral science with user experience research, business intelligence analytics, and data science to unlock insights about love and dating.'
'Hinge labs was developed to study Hinge daters who were successful, study daters who were not successful and figure out what were the patterns and how can we help everyone to level up and help everyone become better and more successful daters,' Hinge CEO Justin McLeod said in a recent episode of the Diary of a CEO podcast.
How Hinge actually processes that data? Well, that remains a mystery for now.
Hinge, like all dating apps, is a tool rather than a remedy. While it can help you make new connections and meet people you wouldn't have otherwise crossed paths with, what happens from there is pretty much all on you.
Over on r/Hingeapp, a subreddit dedicated to discussing the dating app, posters have shared mixed responses. Some users love it and how it differs from other apps, others are less enthused.
'Hinge is definitely way better than Bumble. I rarely get matches on Bumble but get around 3-4 on Hinge every week,' says one user.
Another user points out that: 'It's not really about Hinge 'working' or 'not working' — ultimately there are real people using this app and it's absolutely possible to get good connections from it. But that's because of you two, not because Hinge 'works.' That's like meeting your girlfriend in a park and saying the park 'works.''
Unfortunately, whether or not you meet someone you vibe with on Hinge or any app can come down to luck just as much as it does an algorithm. Be careful of any app promising you otherwise and remember: the amount of matches or likes you get isn't a reflection of you or how worthy or deserving you are of a relationship.
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